INCIDENT SUMMARY

Three large earthquakes have rocked Japan causing widespread damage and major infrastructure ruin in the Kumamoto area and E of the city Uto.  Here are the facts:

Thursday, April 14, 2016.

  • 6.2M. 2126 Hours.  Located 4.3 miles of Ueki, near city of Kumamoto, Japan.

Friday, April 15, 2016.

  • 6.0M.  0003 Hours.  Located 37 miles E of the City Uto, Japan.

Saturday, April 16, 2016.

  • 7.0M.  0125 Hours.  Located 0.6 miles from Kumamoto-Shi.

Epicenter:

  • 74 miles NE of nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.
  • Southern Japan.
  • Mostly in Kumamoto, Japan.

Historical Facts:

  •  Largest since 2011 [9.0M].
  • Japan has been shaking as far back as 2 yrs ago with quakes in the 4.2M – 5.8M range.
  • Larger Quakes in the 5.9M – 7.1M occurred on 11/13/2015 – 4/15/2016. Could this have been a sign of the upcoming BIG one?

Donation History

  • US poll shows giving almost to $750M for Japan’s 2011 Earthquake recovery.

RESOURCES

Incident Cooperators

  • Japanese Law Enforcement
  • Japanese Fire Personnel
  • Self-Defense Force troops
  •  Military Personnel:  350
  • The Japanese Red Cross
  • USFJ to assist with Airlift Operations
  • Japanese Coast Guard
  • medical Units
  • The government states to provide 20,000 staffing levels

Mutual Aid Pending Deployment

  • U.S. Forces

Logistics

  • Meals.  The Japanese Government is working to acquire 900,000 meals. 3 days worth of food supplies x the number of people evacuated.

Search & Rescue

  • Village of Minamiaso.  The focus has shifted to this village due to many may be entrapped under collapsed structures.
  • Rescue Operations.  Will continue 24/7 including during the evening/night as they are racing against time when they are expecting high winds and torrential rain.

INFRASTRUCTURE

  • Kumamoto airport.  Closed.  All Flights cancelled until April 17, 2016.
  • Hong Kong Flights. Also cancelled.
  • JR Kyushu Railway trains shut down, including Kyushu Shinkansen bullet trains.
  • Nuclear Reactor.  No abnormalities reported by Kyushu Electric Power Co’s Sendai Nuclear Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture. Only 1 operating in Country. All others in Fukushima shut down in 2011 due to tsunami that knocked off the plant’s cooling equipment.
  • Toyota Plant:  work suspended after earthquake.
  • Outages:  100,000 are without power.  105,000 are without gas.  420,000 are without water.  The Japanese chief Cabinet Secretary states water is their highest priority in getting restored.  They are distributing water and other supplies.

EVACUATIONS

  • Nishihara.  Temporary Evacuations due to fear of dam collapse.
  • Japanese Government:  90,000 people evacuated in 681 evacuation centers inside Kumamoto Prefecture area.

INJURIES

  • Kumamoto Hospital.  45 admitted or treated with 5 serious injuries.
  • Social Media:  reporting from 968 – 1500-plus.
  • Japanese Government:  190 severely injured. 807 with minor injuries.

DEATH TOLL

  • Thursday:  9.
  • Saturday:  32.
  • Sunday:  Updated to 35 confirmed by the Japanese government.

DAMAGE REPORTS

  • Uto:  Municipal Building partially destroyed.
  • Assohashi bridge collapsed.
  • ASO Shrine collapsed.
  • Mashiki:  Calls for Help and damage reports given.  Town approximately 800 miles SW of Tokyo.
  • Kumamoto:  90 homes destroyed.
  • Kumamoto: 775 homes destroyed.
  • Major Landslide:  has taken out a highway and communities as it has come down the mountain as images appear all over Social media.
  • Volcano Eruption:  Mount Aso has erupted after Saturday’s earthquake.  No word on if any evacuations are happening in this area or the status of the eruption.

WEATHER

  • Current:  18C degrees. Light rain.

ALERTS

  • No Tsunami alerts, warnings or occurrences have been broadcasted.

MEDIA CONTACTS

  • IFRC Asia Pacific. Red Cross Response Media inquiries.  Rena Igarash. Phone: 818096491577.  redcross.org

PUBLIC INFORMATION

  • Safe & Well. American Red Cross. Register at this site to let Friends and Family know you are safe and well, or if you are searching for a Loved One.  Website:  https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php
  •  Five Zero Japan.  Free Wi-Fi access point regardless of carrier.  Code:  “00000JAPAN”
  • Airbnb.  Offering accommodations to those affected by the Japan earthquake. All fees have been waived.  Website:  https://www.airbnb.com/disaster/southernjapanearthquake

HOW TO HELP

  • IFRC Asia Pacific.  Red Cross.  redcross.org.
  • AAR Japan.  Association for Aid & Relief Japan. Works with countries around the globe in disaster relief.  If you wish the funds to be donated specifically to this 2016 quake, indicate “Kumamoto Earthquake”.  Website:  www.aarjapan.gr.jp/english/support
  • Peace Winds America, a disaster preparation and response organization.  focuses on the Asia Pacific.  If donating on this site, make sure to indicate “2016 Kumamoto Earthquake” as the Japan Recovery fund on this site is for the 2011 Quake recovery.  Website:  peacewindamerica.org/support/

SOCIAL MEDIA

  • #JAPANEarthquake
  • #Kumamoto

ABOUT  JAPAN

Japan is an island Country in East Asia that is located in the Pacific Ocean that lies East of the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, China, North Korea,  South Korea and Russia.  It stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the North of the East China Sea and Taiwan in the South.

Japan is a stratovolcano group of 6,852 islands.   The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyunshu and Shikoku, which make up about 97% of Japan’s land mass.   The Country is divided into 47 prefectures in 8 regions with a total population of 126 million people.  It is considered as the 10th largest world group.  They are considered to make up 95.8% of the population.  Tokyo is home to over 9M people.

Kumamoto is listed as Japan’s 18th largest City with a population of 734,294 people per the 2010 Census stats.

Disclaimer:  All information has been verified to the best of our ability.  Organizations mentioned in this post are not being endorsed by us nor have they been verified as to those we would donated too.  They are simply part of the equation and assisting with recovery and aid to the earthquake victims.  Please verify you are giving to a legitimate organization prior to making a donation.

Sources:  USGS, PM Office of Japan, Earthquakes Japan, Red Cross Japan, Wikipedia Japan, Census and other multitudes of Social Media sources.

(c) 2016 The #NWFireBlog